Food Coating and Topping Applicator Apparatus and Methods of Use Thereof

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods for coating, topping, and conveying foods. The apparatus includes a first frame, spring assemblies, a vibrating assembly including an upper pan, a middle pan, a lower pan, and a second frame mounted to the lower pan with the spring assemblies. The second frame is an excited frame and the upper pan, the middle pan, the lower pan are vibrationally connected. The apparatus also includes a vibratory drive unit mounted and adapted to impart energy to the second frame. In addition, the apparatus has a wire conveyor belt assembly including a wire conveyor belt, and a housing that receives the wire conveyor belt. The wire conveyor belt assembly is suspended inside of the vibratory assembly by the first frame such that the wire conveyor belt assembly is isolated from the vibratory assembly.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 940,247, filed May 25, 2007, and under 35 U.S.C. §120 to and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 396,202, filed Mar. 30, 2006, the entireties of both of which are incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The field of invention includes food coating, food topping, and food conveying equipment.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Prepared food products come in a wide variety of styles. Many prepared food products, whether ready-to-eat or those needing further cooking, are prepared with a coating that makes the food product more appealing. Such prepared food products include entrees, appetizers, desserts (such as pastries, donuts), etc., and includes meats, cheese, fruit and vegetables, etc. The types of coatings used on these food products include dry coatings such as flour, bread crumbs, corn m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent text describes a food coating process that aims to make coatings on food products that appear to be \"home-made.\" The process involves using a continuous conveyor belt or tumble drum to apply the coating to the food product while it is still warm. The text also discusses the challenges of coating food products with flour and other ingredients that can be difficult to automate. The technical effects of the patent text include the ability to make \"home-style\" looking coatings on a variety of food products and the use of multiple augers or conveying devices to spread the coating or topping to different parts of the device."

Problems solved by technology

While the automation of the food coating process is economically desirable, another goal of the food coating process is to make the coating appear to be “home-made.” However, most automatic food coating processes fail to make “home-style” appearing foods.

Each coating mixture has inherent characteristics that presents challenges to machinery used to automatically and mechanically coat food products.

For example, flour mixtures, which consist of finely ground dust-like particles, have a tendency to pack under pressure thereby decreasing the free-flow properties of the coating mixture around the food product, which can decrease coating uniformity.

Free-flowing mixtures in automated coating processes can often flow or leak out of the machinery.

Japanese-style crumbs have no uniform shape, are very delicate, and are crystalline-like in nature and appearance.

Principally, mechanical handling of the food items may be quite rigorous limiting its use to robust products.

More delicate food items (such as fish) may not be suitable for drum processing.

This results in a complex device with numerous drives.

These types of devices are also difficult to clean.

Furthermore, augers degrade coatings and toppings, and are dangerous.

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